Arlin+della+Cruz


 * SUMMARY: Arlin della Cruz, age 19, hanged herself on October 15, 1992 after her abortion at Hillcrest Women's Medical Center in Harrisburg, PA **

A woman I used to picket with in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told me of a day she was outside one of Harrisburg's two [|safe and legal] abortion facilities.

The clinic was set back from the street by an expanse of lawn, with a parking lot to the side and back. Sidewalk counselors would stand in the alley, where they could call to the women as they got out of their cars. The picketers would stand on the sidewalk in front, where patients could see their signs from the waiting room.

The woman saw a middle-aged couple get out of a car. They opened the back door and pulled out a teenage girl who appeared to be Filipino.

The girl was crying. The sidewalk counselors called out to her, and she tried to move toward them, the picketer said, but the middle-aged couple took the girl by the arms and led her toward the front of the building.

The picketer called out to the clinic escort. "Can't you see she doesn't want to do this? I can't step on your property, but you can help her. You're pro-choice, right? Can't you help her?"

According to the picketer, the escort smirked at her, then held the facility door open, to make it easier for the couple to propel the girl into the clinic.

The next time she saw that girl's face, the picketer told me, was on the news.

It was October of 1992, and the news story was about the suicide of 19-year-old Arlin N. Della Cruz. She had disappeared from her home on October 15. A search found her hanging from a tree in a nearby woods. "Under her shirt, the coroner found Arlin's favorite stuffed animal -- a rabbit." Arlin's mother said that Arlin had left a suicide note saying that she wanted to go be with her baby.

One of Arlin's friends reported that Arlin wanted the baby, but chose abortion to try to salvage her relationship with her boyfriend.

If the picketer's observations are correct, Arlin had serious second thoughts the day of the abortion.

Abortion is associated with an increase in all forms of violent death: accident, homicide, and suicide.

Other post-abortion suicides include:
 * **@Carol Cunningham**, age 21, who shut herself in her garage, ran her car, and died from the exhaust fumes in August of 1986
 * **@Laura Grunas**, age 30, who shot her baby's father and then herself in August of 2006
 * **“@Haley Mason**”, age 22, who overdosed on pills and alcohol in April of 2001
 * "**@Sandra Roe**," age 18, who killed herself using an unidentified means in April of 1971
 * **@Sandra Kaiser**, age 15, who threw herself off an overpass into traffic in November of 1984
 * **@Stacy Zallie**, age 20, who committed suicide in October of 2002

Sources: Christian Broadcasting Network, "Pennsylvania Abortion / Suicide," Air date November 6, 1992; personal communication

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